The history of American Halloween

In addition to "Halloween in America," by Stuart Schneider, I also relied on the excellent book "Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon" by Cindy Ott

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HASHTAGS:

[calboy]

5000 videos, 5000 awards. This guy is killing it

[MusicalMethuselah]

The shade thrown at Europe's "crappy little vegetable lanterns" compared to the "so much better" pumpkin ones is hilarious haha

[TheFinalDemon]

I don't really care about mispronunciation of words if it's not your native language because languages are hard and people try their best but the fact that you pronounced Samhain correctly made me unexpectedly very happy.

[Ajv]

It is such a relief to hear someone admit “No one knows. It be like that.” Especially when discussing cultural history.

It’s partly why I get frustrated with the weird, contemporary phobia of cultural diffusion. It’s something we all do over time and there’s nothing inherently wrong about that.

[oliviastratton]

I greatly respect your ability to say "no one knows for sure" instead of propping up some urban legend.

[randomvids]

Not sure if you've seen it but the mini series "over the garden wall" has been a traditional viewing with my friends for years now which references so many of these classic Halloween tropes that were super interesting to hear the origins of!

[tcm]

The Scottish version of Halloween seems to have been more about young people getting together in a sort of courting ritual. The Robert Burns poem 'Halloween' describes a number of the 'magical' rituals that took place. The author explains a number of these in the footnotes to the poem. This is footnote 8:

"Burning the nuts is a favorite charm. They name the lad and lass to each particular nut, as they lay them in the fire; and according as they burn quietly together, or start from beside one another, the course and issue of the courtship will be."

[lisak]

Any excuse for a party is an old American tradition.

[BladeRedwind]

Would LOVE if you did a breakdown on the history of creepy Victorian Christmas cards.

[JustAManFromThePast]

What always gets me how recent these seemingly longstanding traditions are. Christmas is one of course, but Halloween is even more recent. There haven't even been 100 "traditional" Halloweens celebrated yet.

[bagelman]

I’m surprised you didn’t talk about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, since that’s one of the most iconic old Halloween stories in America.

[icefrout]

While it seems a lot of the traditions of Halloween are similar in age to those of Christmas, it might be interesting to contrast the statuses of their "cultural canons". You've mentioned that the Christmas "cultural canon" has mostly shut now, having gotten a lot of the bulk of it immediately after WW2. Halloween meanwhile seems to have newer iconic facets like '80s slashers, "Nightmare Before Christmas" and the remix of "Spooky Scary Skeletons".

[_sibley]

The amount of detail dedicated to those "parties" images at 6:47, despite being only 10 seconds of content, is why all of J.J.'s videos are award-winning. Also the squeaky toy noise at 15:48.

[JustAManFromThePast]

The witch switch is interesting, because for centuries upon centuries witches were depicted as beautiful, like Circe, Sybil, and Medea. That was part of their power, being so beautiful they could "bewitch" you. By MacBeth we have old crones that are women but not look like it.

[SpiralSine]

A JJ video? On a weekday? Quite spooky indeed!

[gabriellavedier]

Also, about the candy. Max Miller did a Tasting History about Halloween candy, where he made vinegar candy, and found primary sources that showed people were giving out candy and having town-wide parties to keep children and teens out of mischief. It started with cabbage theft, then cabbage theft and destruction, and with the integration of Bonfire night and Mischief night, hooligans were stealing wood to make big bonfires. So it was best to just give the little rapscallions something to do.

[batzcat]

I applaud you for not feeding us some BS about the witches hat. I cant tell you how many times I look stuff up that I "learned" from Youtube only to find it wasn't actually true 😅

[legomann]

I love all this old timey turn of the century fall stuff! It really puts you in the halloween and thanksgiving spirit

[Hookly]

Great video, but I would offer a correction that November 1 is still All Saints Day in the Roman Catholic Calendar. It’s a holiday not often widely celebrated culturally in places like the US and Canada, but is still a holiday nonetheless. Also, the scheduling is significant because the date was moved from the spring/summer (8 weeks after Easter)

[SincerelyFromStephen]

The YouTube channel Tasting History with Max Miller does a Halloween episode where he makes a homemade vintage vinegar candy (yes I know) and he delves into the history of some modern Halloween traditions and what some kids would do for “tricks” in the US. It’s a wonderful video/channel. Highly recommend his work